Warrior West – NEMO Equipment Tetrapod SE Jungle Hammock

The new Tetrapod SE Jungle Hammock is made from an Alpha Green siliconized fabric body and incorprates an integral bug net. The rain fly is made from Lightweight PU coated ripstop. interstingly, the patterning allows you to sleep flat on the diagonal.

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on Friday, May 1st, 2015 at 22:50 and is filed under Shelter, Warrior Expo.
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The AFP uses all the time out of the field, and sometimes in the field, as do Malays, Indos, Thais, among others. I’ve seen plenty used by US troops, whether on a bird riding into theater, or in a base camp area.

Tents for example, who uses tents during operations? No one really unless in the Arctic or extreme weather for the most part, but that doesn’t mean that the item is not in common usage otherwise, a lot of people like sleeping in hammocks and tents. The advantage most hammocks have is they weigh next to nothing and keep you off the ground. It’s not a grab your gun and fight type set up, but in a more permissive environment it’s a frequently used alternative to a mosquito bar or tent.

I do recall seeing a guy or two take one to the field from time to time(usually bought at Brigade Quartermaster or camping store) but it was rare in my experience.

I still have one of the VN era issue hammocks that I tried a couple of times myself when I was stationed in Hawaii. It wasn’t that comfortable IMO or as easy to set up in the dark as a poncho hooch so I gave up on it.

I went through the old JOTC in Panama three times with different Infantry Battalions. We were taught how to make ground level poncho shelters that incorporated the mosquito bar. We were never issued hammocks or really needed them. I think a couple of the school cadre might have though. Likewise an RI or two down in Florida Ranger Camp.

I also attended something called JEST (Jungle Environment Survival Training) taught by wise old Filipinos in the PI back in 81. No hammocks there either.

They taught us how to make bamboo platforms to keep us a foot or so off the wet ground. That was a pretty neat trick if you happen to be in a place where you have those kinds of materials.

FWIW, a friend of mine with 4 tours in Vietnam told me he would never use one in the field because he felt like it exposed him too much by being off the ground and was too hard to get out of quickly. From my admittedly brief personal experiment I would agree on both counts.

So, bottom line from my experience, hammocks are not generally used operationally. Perhaps someone who has been to the PI for OEF-P would be able to confirm or deny their use more recently?

I have more than a year in the PI, whether on JCET, training or OEF-P; in base camps, these get so much use, especially during the day, we dubbed them Filipino Anti-Work Devices. On operations, not so much, but some places they are used frequently, see my other comments on here.

In mangroves, triple canopy jungle, and swamps, hammocks or platform beds are quite common. If operating out of long term base camps, you will often find them as well.

Went through JOTC several times when I was stationed in Panama in the mid-80’s. We were taught how to set-up a hootch that used a simple hammock along with the USGI poncho and bug bar. Maybe they stopped teaching this idea later on? Many of us in the light infantry used hammocks in the jungle. A lot of GI’s used the cheap net hammock from Brigade Quartermaster/MCSS. Some of us bought hand-made indig hammocks made by the San Blas indians. They were much nicer as one could sleep on the diagonal.

I used various other hammocks for the rest of my military career. Finally getting a Hennessy Hammock. I would string it up between two humvees if I had to. Best sleep ever and it sure beat the heck our of sleeping on the ground.

Malaysian survival school is almost all from hammocks. The AFP uses them constantly. Yes, hammocks do get used operationally by indigenous troops in jungle environments, most real jungles the ground is not the place to sleep.

Integral bug net, zip side entry, diagonal sleep position to lie flat. I fail to see what this is truly bringing to the table that’s new or innovative from the description provided but if there’s something I am missing, please fill in the blank.

I’m a big fan of Nemo, and own a few of their products from personal purchases, including a GoGo bivy, but after being issued their Coda 1.5P SE tent and having the stitching tear through 2 different spots of their “Lightweight PU coated ripstop” fabric during a slow and methodical setup, i’d rather they not seemingly favor lightweight over durability so much. I was setting the tent up in my carpeted living room by the way. Looked into their warranty and it looks like it’ll be covered but processed through gov channels which means i’ll get the repaired/replaced tent back in oh, 2020…

Yea, it was the vestibule fabric near the pole sleeve. Not looking for a pissing contest, so no story into “exactly” how i tore it for the masses to troll on. And the fact that you have had boy scouts use them with little/no issues is most likely testiment to the design and QC that goes on at Nemo. Hell the Coda is 40D PU vestibule fabric and my GoGo bivy is a thinner 20D PU fabric and that has held up fine. But if i ever want to purchse another Nemo shelter, ill pay more attention to the seams, continue to dry run new gear before i take it out for work or play, and not sweat weight when it come to ounces if I think durability will suffer.